Episode 606: "The World Turned Upside Down" (SPOILERS!)

Jamie in Episode 606

Here are my reactions to Episode 606 of the OUTLANDER TV series, titled "The World Turned Upside Down". This was a fantastic episode, really well done, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

*** SPOILER WARNING!! ***

There are SPOILERS below! If you don't want to know yet, stop reading now.

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The episode opens with Roger giving a sermon to the congregation. I was disconcerted by the unusual camera angle used in this first shot, and had a hard time focusing on what Roger was saying at first.

"You're doing a fine job, Roger Mac," Jamie says after the service.
"I appreciate that, coming from you."

No kidding! I'm so glad their relationship has finally evolved to the point where they're comfortable with one another. There were times in Season 5 where I wondered how they'd ever get here.

Roger mentions that Tom Christie has been teaching the children in the meeting-house in the afternoons. And then he wonders where the MacNeills are. The young couple, last seen in the rent-collecting sequence in Episode 603, "Temperance", didn't come to church.

The conversation turns to Fergus and Marsali, who have relocated to New Bern, where Fergus now has a printshop. "He'll thrive in the printshop and be able to provide for his family," Jamie says, and I agree, that's a good thing, even if it means we may see less of them from now on.

The next scene, at the MacNeills' cabin, is the first of many in this episode that comes straight from the book, and they did an excellent job of adapting it for TV:

Brianna sat on the floor by the elder child, the little girl’s head in her lap, pressing a cup against her mouth. Lizzie knelt by the hearth, face red with exertion as she kindled the fire. The flies were settling on the motionless body of the woman on the bed, and Marsali crouched over the limp form of the baby on her lap, frantically trying to rouse it to drink.

Spilled water streaked her skirt. I could see the tiny head lolled back on her lap, water dribbling down a slack and horribly flattened cheek.

“She can’t,” Marsali was saying, over and over. “She can’t, she can’t!”

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 60, "The Pale Horseman Rides". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

This is a harrowing scene, difficult to watch, just as in the book. I was surprised that they toned down Claire's "Bloody f*cking hell!" to a much milder, "Goddammit!" But I liked very much the way they showed Padraig's reaction to the deaths of his wife and their baby. Just heartbreaking!

That was one of the most emotionally intense opening sequences we've ever seen on the show. Very well done!

The elk standing in the water in the opening "title card" baffled me at first, but its meaning becomes clear much later in the episode.

In the next scene, Claire and Malva are in the surgery, and Claire is inspecting stool samples under her microscope, exactly as in the book (ABOSAA chapter 62, "Amoeba").

"That's an amoeba," Claire says, and we get a good close-up look at the organism responsible for the illness. I haven't seen one under a microscope since high school biology, and I was fascinated.

"The weak shall confound the mighty," Jamie says, echoing Roger in his sermon earlier in the episode.

Watching them preparing to fight this disease -- Jamie going off to look for the source of contaminated water and to warn the others to wash their hands and boil water before drinking it, Claire getting her supplies together to treat more patients -- I can't help recalling what it was like in the early weeks of the pandemic, before vaccines, before we had a clear idea of how the coronavirus spreads. And here is Claire, like Dr. Fauci, trying to educate people in the midst of a public health emergency.

"We'll do what we can, but remember, there is no cure." That's a chilling line, and an all-too-familiar feeling, two years into the pandemic.

In the next scene, they're burying victims of the illness. Claire's line, "I'm getting terribly tired of funerals," comes straight from the book. I liked the way her vision and hearing fades out just before she collapses.

They bring Claire home, and tend her as best they can, trying to bring her fever down. Jamie hangs back, standing in the doorway to the little room off the surgery where Claire lies, just staring at her, helpless. He must be terrified, but it only shows in his eyes. I wish he'd shown more emotion.

Late that night, Allan Christie comes to tell Malva to go home, but she refuses. I was surprised that Allan didn't argue.

Watching Jamie carrying Claire up that very fancy spiral staircase, I had a sudden memory of Roger, in Episode 509, "Monsters and Heroes", telling Jamie, "Ferrying you about is becoming an everyday occurrence," and that made me smile a little, despite the seriousness of the situation.

I found the vigil over Claire's sickbed unsettling, rousing memories of keeping watch over my mother in her final hours, knowing there was nothing more we could do for her.

Malva offers Jamie a mug of "willow-bark tea". Huh?? That's not just a harmless herbal tea, like chamomile. Many of you will recall from the books that willow-bark tea contains salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin. Claire uses it occasionally to treat patients with fever.

"It's the same tea Claire made for me, when I was ill with the snakebite."

Exactly! Why would Malva give him that, when he's not ill or injured? Also, it's supposed to be very bitter-tasting, yet Jamie drinks it without even grimacing at the taste. I didn't like that at all. The only way I can rationalize it is if they cut a bit of dialogue that explains that Jamie was suffering from a headache and Malva offered to make him some tea to treat it.

The rest of their conversation, however, starting with Malva's anecdote about the boy who let the snake out in church, comes straight from the book. (ABOSAA chapter 48, "Woodears")

It seems an odd time for Jamie and Malva to be having this long chat when Claire is feverish and maybe dying upstairs. On the other hand, we do need to see them spending time alone together, in light of what happens later.

Meanwhile, upstairs in the bedroom, Claire is having a fever-dream. Or nightmare, rather. A series of confusing images: thunder and lightning, what looks like a handmade rug stained with a little blood, the amoeba, and most startling of all, Claire's own heart, held in her hands.

The blood-stained rug is apparently an "Easter egg" for the book-fans, referring to Malva's (false!) claim in chapter 80, "The World Turned Upside Down", that a rug in Jamie's study was stained with her blood.

Fever rolled across my mind like a thunderstorm, jagged forks of pain crackling through my body in bursts of brilliance, each a lightning bolt that glowed for a vivid moment along some nerve or plexus, lighting up the hidden hollows of my joints, burning down the length of muscle fibers. A merciless brilliance, it struck again, and again, the fiery sword of a destroying angel who gave no quarter.

[....] The thunder grew louder as I penetrated deeper and deeper into the murk that boiled around me, becoming hideously regular, like the beating of a kettledrum, so that my ears rang with it, and I felt myself a hollow skin, tight-stretched, vibrating with each crash of sound.

The source of it was now before me, throbbing so loudly that I felt I must shout, only to hear some other sound--but though I felt my lips draw back and my throat swell with effort, I heard nothing but the pounding. In desperation, I thrust my hands--if they were my hands--through the misty gray and seized some warm, moist object, very slippery, that throbbed, convulsing in my hands. I looked down and knew it all at once to be my own heart.

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 80, "The World Turned Upside Down". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I thought they did an excellent job in conveying the details of Claire's nightmare, including that last part. Holding her beating heart in her own hands?!? And then, just as in the book, she dimly senses Jamie standing there by the window, Malva coming toward him. Dream or memory?

The next scene, with Roger and Claire, again comes straight from the book. I was glad to see they included Claire's reaction to learning that Mrs. Bug and Malva cut off her hair, verbatim from the book.

"Nothing could ever make you less beautiful," Roger says. I liked it very much. In the book, all he says is, "You're beautiful," but I think this line makes his point more effectively.

Bree's reaction, too, is spot on, exactly as described in the book, especially the part where she tells Claire, "You are not allowed to die!"

Bree tells Claire that she's pregnant, and offers to trim her very messy hair. The result is quite a different look from what we're used to, of course, but it's attractive, and a vast improvement from the "skeleton with a bad crewcut" look that I always imagined from the book!

“I dinna suppose ye’d think of wearing a cap?” he suggested, diffidently fingering a muslin specimen that Marsali had brought me. “Only until it grows out a bit?”

“I don’t suppose I bloody would.”

I had some difficulty in saying this, shocked as I was by the horrifying vision in the glass. In fact, I had a strong impulse to seize the cap from his hands, put it on and pull it down to my shoulders.

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 64, "I Am the Resurrection, Part II". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

For the second time this episode, the writers tone down Claire's language, deleting the word "bloody" from this bit. I wish they wouldn't do that! It reduces the unique flavor of Claire's speech when they clean up her language.

Jamie fills Claire in on what's been happening in the past few days. "I found a dead elk in the river, upstream from the MacNeills' and the others who got sick," he says. So that explains the elk we saw in the beginning of the episode, and it also solves the mystery of how the disease started.

Jamie says Tom Christie is still ill with fever and headaches, similar to what Claire has been suffering.

"When we were in Paris, and I lost Faith, during my fever, I saw birds, blue herons, and Master Raymond, he said, 'Blue is the color of healing.'"

Awww! The reference to their stillborn daughter, Faith, is very poignant. Those of you who have read GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE will recall the Blue, especially in the pivotal sequence near the end of the book.

"But this time, I saw a snake. And it was in this house." This line isn't in the book, but after watching the episode, it seems very clear that the "snake" is Malva Christie.

"I'd be very angry, Claire, if ye died and left me." The matter-of-fact way Jamie says this line was really disappointing. I think this line loses much of its emotional power compared to the way it's done in the book:

“You must continue, for their sakes--though you would not for your own,” he had whispered, Fergus’s face pressed into his shoulder, the black hair wet with sweat and water, cold against his cheek. “Tu comprends, mon enfant, mon fils? Comprends-tu?”

I felt his throat move as he swallowed.

“See, I kent ye were dying,” he said very softly. “I was sure ye’d be gone when I came back to the house, and I should be alone. I wasna speaking to Fergus then, I think, so much as to myself.”

He raised his head then, and looked at me through a blur of tears and laughter.

“Oh, God, Claire,” he said, “I would have been so angry, if ye’d died and left me!”

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 64, "I Am the Resurrection, Part II". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

We don't really get to feel his grief or his desperate fear for her in the show, and I wonder why not. I think a lot of fans would have liked to see that.

The next scene also comes almost word-for-word from the book. Claire goes to visit Tom Christie. As she walks through the fisher-folk's camp, we see that they are all still living in rough shelters, little more than tents. Why? They've had a church completed for some time; what's stopping them from building cabins? This makes no sense to me. It's a wonder they didn't all freeze to death over the winter, living in such rough conditions!

It's a long walk to the Christies' cabin, and Claire arrives pale and exhausted, which alarms Christie very much. The dialogue in this scene comes almost word-for-word from ABOSAA chapter 66, "The Dark Rises", with one exception, and I thought Mark Lewis Jones was excellent here, very much as I always pictured him.

Claire proposes to take a small sample from Tom Christie -- "a small measure of...some fecal matter."

Oops! I think Claire forgot momentarily who she was talking to. That's a shockingly intimate request to make of someone she doesn't know well, let alone a man as private as Tom Christie! I think even Jamie might balk at complying with something like that. (In the book, she and Tom discussed mosquitoes, not stool samples!) I was not at all surprised to see Tom react angrily, putting an abrupt end to the conversation.

Jamie is not pleased to discover that Claire went on that long walk by herself, without telling anyone. "You are not allowed to kill yourself," he says, echoing Bree. But I was really glad to see they included all of this bit:

“It’s a great comfort,” he said at last, “to see the sun come up and go down. When I dwelt in the cave, when I was in prison, it gave me hope, to see the light come and go, and know that the world went about its business.”

He was looking out the window, toward the blue distance where the sky darkened toward infinity. His throat moved a little as he swallowed.

“It gives me the same feeling, Sassenach,” he said, “to hear ye rustling about in your surgery, rattling things and swearin’ to yourself.” He turned his head, then, to look at me, and his eyes held the depths of the coming night.

“If ye were no longer there--or somewhere--” he said very softly, “then the sun would no longer come up or go down.” He lifted my hand and kissed it, very gently. He laid it, closed around my ring, upon my chest, rose, and left.

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 66, "The Dark Rises". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Awwww! I've always loved that quote. All of the Jamie/Claire scenes in this episode are wonderful, and I'm glad that they took the time to include some of these quieter moments. They don't always do that, and I think it helps a great deal.

Late that night, Claire wakes to a thumping sound, which proves to be Jamie, trying to get comfortable sleeping on the floor.

"That reminds me of years ago, when we went to collect the rents and you slept on the floor outside my door."
"You stepped on me, Sassenach. Nearly broke my ribs."

This little memory from Episode 105, "Rent", made me smile. I haven't thought about that in a long time.

I was delighted to see the discussion of Claire's "womanly virtues" included here. It's another one of my favorite scenes from the book:

“So what is my most endearing trait?” I demanded.

“Ye think I’m funny,” he said, grinning.

“I… do … not …” I grunted, struggling madly. He merely lay on top of me, tranquilly oblivious to my pokings and thumpings, until I exhausted myself and lay gasping underneath him.

“And,” he said thoughtfully, “ye like it verra much when I take ye to bed. No?”

“Er …” I wanted to contradict him, but honesty forbade. Besides, he bloody well knew I did.

“You are squashing me,” I said with dignity. “Kindly get off.”

“No?” he repeated, not moving.

“Yes! All right! Yes! Will you bloody get off?!”

He didn’t get off, but bent his head and kissed me.

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 20, "Dangerous Gifts". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

A couple of months go by. Jamie and Roger prepare to leave for New Bern, to attend the Provincial Congress, where delegates will be selected for the Continental Congress. Roger is excited at the prospect, but I am distracted by his bushy beard. I wish he'd keep it trimmed! I'm not a fan of that mountain-man look, at all. And I can't help thinking that he is going to be the only man at that Provincial Congress with a full beard, since most gentlemen at the time were clean-shaven.

Just as they are about to depart, the Christies come galloping up the path toward the Big House, and knowing what's coming next, my first thought was, "Fireworks!! This is going to be fun." (Fun as in Highly Entertaining for the viewers, not so much for the characters involved.)

As they enter the house, we see Young Ian, for the first time in this episode, but he says nothing.

"My daughter finds herself with child," Tom Christie announces.

The whole sequence that follows comes basically straight from the book (ABOSAA chapter 80, "The World Turned Upside Down"), and in my opinion they absolutely hit it out of the park! Really, they couldn't have done a better job with this scene, or the one with Jamie and Claire that follows. This is an example of what I call "filming the book", and it's just amazing to watch!

Malva points a finger at Jamie and says, "It was him."

I have never been so grateful for anything in life as for the fact that I was looking at Jamie’s face when she said it. He had no warning, no chance to control his features--and he didn’t. His face showed neither anger nor fear, denial or surprise; nothing save the open-mouthed blankness of absolute incomprehension.

“What?” he said, and blinked, once. Then realization flooded into his face.

“WHAT?” he said, in a tone that should have knocked the little trollop flat on her lying little bottom.

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 80, "The World Turned Upside Down". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

All through this scene with the Christies, I kept muttering, "Lying little trollop!" under my breath. Jessica Reynolds does an amazing job, absolutely channeling Malva throughout this whole scene.

In the middle of this highly emotional scene, Mrs. Bug comes to the door. "Will ye be needing anything?" Jamie sends her away, but it's obvious from what we learn later that she's going to spread this juicy bit of gossip all over the Ridge.

As Malva tells her side of the story, Claire remembers the hazy vision from her sickbed of Jamie with a bottle of whisky, standing by the window, with Malva nearby.

"And then he took me, against the wall whilst you lay sleeping, so great was his need--" SLAP!! Claire has finally heard more than enough. She runs out the door, passing Mrs. Bug, who has plainly been listening to the whole conversation.

If you're wondering why Claire ran away, here is a very interesting explanation that Diana Gabaldon posted on the old Compuserve Books and Writers Community (now TheLitForum.com), back in 2008. It's definitely worth reading!

I love the way the sparks fly in the next part of this scene, with Jamie, Tom, and Malva. Exactly as I've always pictured, including the look on Malva's face when she says, "I've seen the scars on your naked body."

Book-readers have often wondered about that: how does Malva know about Jamie's scars? The TV show solved that problem by having Malva peer through the slats of the barn like a peeping Tom at the end of Episode 604, when Jamie and Claire were having sex, leaving no doubt that she did indeed see him naked.

Sam is terrific in this scene, letting both the anger and the fear show through. And I like the way he tells Tom, "Get out. Take your daughter and leave my house." His voice goes very quiet, but you can feel the fury behind it.

The next scene, where Jamie comes to find Claire in the barn, is also really well done, and basically word-for-word from the book. I'm so glad that they included the whole thing, because this scene contains some of my favorite quotes from the book. Like this one, for example:

“There’s naught I can say,” he said quietly, “that doesna sound as though I try to defend or excuse myself. And I willna do that.”

I made a small sound, as though someone had punched me in the stomach, and he glanced sharply at me.

“I won’t do it!” he said fiercely. “There is no way to deny such a charge that doesna carry the stink of doubt about it. And nothing I can say to you that doesna sound like some groveling apology for--for--well, I willna apologize for something I havena done, and if I did, ye’d only doubt me more.”

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 80, "The World Turned Upside Down". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Cait is just terrific in this scene! I think this is some of her best work all season.

Jamie reluctantly tells the story of his encounter with Mary MacNab, as shown in Episode 302, "Surrender", and Claire says she does believe him about Malva. But the reason she gives here ("Because you'd never turn your back on a child of your blood, no matter how it came into the world"), although it is a direct quote from the book, is not the same as what she actually says to Jamie:

“I understand,” I said. My voice was thick and clogged, but fairly steady now. “I do.”

And I did. Not only about Mary MacNab and what she had done--but why he’d told me now. There was no need; I would never have known. No need but the need for absolute honesty between us--and that I must know it was there.

I had believed him, about Malva. But now I had not only certainty of mind--but peace of heart.

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 80, "The World Turned Upside Down". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

So, Jamie and Claire have reconciled. What do they do now? The only thing they can do: brace themselves for the inevitable fallout. As Jamie points out, "They'll all believe it, Claire."

In the next scene, Roger and Bree are walking through the woods, trying to process what just happened. Bree is furious, as I expected, but she can't quite dismiss Malva's story entirely, and I was surprised at the reason why.

Bree tells Roger about Frank's relationship with Sandy, as shown in Season 3. Her father had a serious relationship with this woman, serious enough to tell Claire he wanted a divorce in order to marry her.

"Frank was a totally different situation," Roger says. I love that line!

Much as I hated the whole Sandy plotline in the show (and I really did! I think they made Frank out to be a cad, which he never was in the books), I do think Bree has a point here. It's a very effective way to plant the seed of doubt in viewers' minds. We saw that relationship with our own eyes, after all.

In the next scene, Claire goes to talk to Malva Christie. Most of the dialogue here comes from the book, but in the book, it's Roger who goes to see Malva, not Claire. Notice the way Malva is dressed, with a long shirt hiding her baby bump.

"My father made me stand in front of the congregation and confess. Mr. MacKenzie told him not to, but he did it anyway." I can totally believe that Tom Christie would do something like that.

"I believe him, completely," Claire says. "You know, he and I have been through things that you couldn't even imagine. And this, I promise you, it won't come between us." I like this.

Allan Christie sees Malva talking to Claire, and he is predictably furious. He tells Claire the whole situation would never have happened if not for Claire's "devilish ways".

Allan: "She says you make potions to bring people back from the dead."
Malva: "It's true. I saw it."

Lying little trollop!

"Stay away from my family," Claire says, very firmly, and walks away.

In the next scene, Young Ian is out in the woods with some of the other young men when Obadiah Henderson starts bad-mouthing Jamie. Obviously he's heard the rumors. Ian punches Henderson, and suddenly he's surrounded by at least a half-dozen other men, all of them hostile. Ian is vastly outnumbered, but we never learn how he got out of that situation. Mohawk martial arts, maybe? Or perhaps the deceptively mild-mannered Rollo took a bite out of a couple of them? We can only guess.

Meanwhile, Claire is working in her garden when she suddenly sees the face of Lionel Brown, smiling at her. She is startled and upset, of course, but it's only Ian. He's totally unhurt, showing no effects from the fight in the previous scene.

This scene is, again, almost word-for-word from the book.

“Ian, you mustn’t worry yourself.” I put a consoling hand--dirt-stained as it was--on his arm. “It will … work itself out, somehow. Such things always do.” They did--generally with the maximum of uproar and catastrophe. And if Malva’s child should by some horrid cosmic joke be born with red hair … I closed my eyes for a moment, feeling a wave of dizziness.

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 82, "Not the End of the World". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Ian reveals that he had sex with Malva, so he thinks the baby could be his.

"I told [Malva] that I was sorry, but that I loved another. I still loved Emily." Awww, poor Ian! This is very poignant, now that we understand the depth of his love for her.

The rumors continue to spread. Claire and Jamie are shunned by most of the people on the Ridge.

"And while Jamie was away at the Congress, preparing to revolt against Great Britain, the Ridge was mounting a rebellion of its own." This line from Claire's voiceover sounds more ominous than it actually is, and I didn't like it. There's no imminent threat to Jamie and Claire at this point, other than the destruction of their reputations through gossip and rumor-mongering.

Two months later, Jamie and Roger return from the Provincial Congress. The list of alcoholic beverages comes from ABOSAA chapter 83, "Declarations".

Roger says Jamie wasn't chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress because of the rumors about him and Malva, which amuses me. If he had been, his name would surely be in our history books!

Claire is lonely and depressed. No patients come to her surgery anymore. Suddenly she hears Lionel Brown's voice in her head. "Lonely, are we?" She checks outside, but no one is around except for Malva, who is coming toward the house.

She decides to self-medicate with ether, yet again. (Will this nonsense EVER end?? I'm trying to be patient, but enough is enough already!) This time, it seems to be a way of hiding from everyone, including Malva. She knocks herself out with the ether just as Malva starts pounding on the door, calling for her.

This time, her ether-induced nightmare features Malva. Her taunts about Claire being old and unattractive are based on Claire's own thoughts, in the book:

You’re an old woman.
See how the veins stand out on your hands.
The flesh has fallen away from your bones; your breasts sag.


(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 80, "The World Turned Upside Down". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

The nightmare-taunting continues. "I'll have him. I'll have this house. I'll have his child. Everything that's yours will be mine!" She's starting to sound a bit like Laoghaire, don't you think?

In the dream, Claire holds a knife to Malva's throat. "You come near me or my husband again, and I will f*cking kill you!" And finally, Claire wakes up.

She returns to the garden, and discovers Malva's dead body, lying there with her throat slit. The baby is still moving. Desperately, she cuts into Malva's abdomen with a garden knife. She delivers the child, but it's not breathing.

“Don’t go,” I said, “don’t go, don’t go, please don’t go.” But the vibrancy faded, a small blue glow that seemed to light the palms of my hands for an instant, then dwindle like a candle flame, to the coal of a smoldering wick, to the faintest trace of brightness--then everything was dark.

I was still sitting in the brilliant sun, crying and blood-soaked, the body of the little boy in my lap, the butchered corpse of my Malva beside me, when they found me.

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 84, "Among the Lettuces". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Wow! This was absolutely the perfect place to end this episode. It's just heartbreaking. What a fantastic episode. This one's a keeper for sure, and it will go on my list of all-time favorite episodes of the whole series. Kudos to the whole cast and crew!

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I hope you enjoyed this recap. Look here for my recaps of all of the OUTLANDER episodes.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There will NOT be a new episode of OUTLANDER on April 17, but please come back on April 24 for my recap of Episode 607.

Looking for a place to discuss All Things OUTLANDER? Check out TheLitForum.com, formerly the Compuserve Books and Writers Community. You have to sign up in order to read or post on the forum, but it's free.

9 comments

Anonymous said...

Great review as always. I want to echo your thoughts on the fisher folks village. My first thought was - how is it Amy has a fully finished cabin with a chimney, no less, and the rest of them are still living in tents. Roger's building skills? I think not.

Tara Parker said...

Hi Karen, Great recap! I always love reading yours. Just an FYI- the link to Diana's comments on the old forum doesn't work. Do you have another way of getting to that?

Tara Parker said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Karen Henry said...

Hi Tara,

The link is fixed now, sorry about that!

Karen

Susan said...

Your reviews are always spot on and I appreciated the link to the Compu Serve site, very informative! I also expected more emotion from Jaime when Claire was so ill, a bit disappointed about that but the scene in the stable was absolutely brilliant. I look forward to your reviews after each episode and I thank you for your meticulous knowledge of the books!

Anonymous said...

Yes, I also wondered about why Malva made willow bark tea.

Connie

laine said...

Why is Claire dosing herself with ether when it transports her into nightmares? This is a non-book addition that makes Claire look weak and stupid while totally negating the brave speech she made immediately after her rescue about how she wouldn't let her abusers get the best of her. Another example of writers grafting on a 21st century concern - PTSD onto a 20th century tough broad, making her smaller.

Le Son said...

The episode six is disappointing, especially the way it portraits Claire, who appears to be not only stupid but also weak and vulnerable. Why does a thoughtful doctor use the ether on herself again and again in such abusing and irresponsible way? In addition, the emotional connection between Claire and Jamie seems to have melted away in this episode. There isn’t any moment of Jamie’s grief over his wife’s near death (he looks a bit relax).

LizzyWednesday said...

This was such a great episode and I agree with you about Jessica Reynolds' performance - she got that "sly" part of Malva's character so very right through the whole season. It's a part of her character that I really don't understand, but the way she turned it on and off for the visuals ... wow. Give that woman a BAFTA!

I'm still super-cranky about the ether subplot - the only time book-Claire considers self-medicating with ether is in ECHO, and even then, it's less "self-medicating" and more "contemplating suicide." *sigh*

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